Patents by Inventor Nicolas Brachet

Nicolas Brachet has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20180067185
    Abstract: In one example embodiment, a certified location service enables a mobile device to access a location-based service when a determined location meets a location requirement and an overall confidence score for the determined location exceeds a confidence threshold. A data package is received including identifiers of beacons observed by the mobile device, and a location of the mobile device is determined based on a calculated location of one or more of the beacons. An overall confidence score for the determined location is calculated based on one or more individual confidence scores for the one or more beacons used in determining the location or composite confidence scores for types of the one or more beacons. The determined location and the overall confidence score are provided to one or more provider servers that allow the mobile device to access a location-based service based thereon.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 13, 2017
    Publication date: March 8, 2018
    Inventors: Russel K. Jones, Christopher Steger, Nicolas Brachet, Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Andrew Broadstone, Joel Morrin
  • Patent number: 9817101
    Abstract: In one example embodiment, a Wi-Fi based location determination technique both determines one or more locations of a mobile device, and calculates a confidence score for each determined location. A request is received at a certified location service executing on a server for one or more locations of the mobile device and a data package. The data package may include an indication of a plurality of beacons observed by the mobile device. The certified location service determines one or more locations of the mobile device based on a calculated location of at least some of the plurality of beacons. The certified location service also determines a confidence score for each beacon used in determining each location. An overall confidence score for each determined location may be calculated based on a combination of the confidence scores for each of the beacons used in the determination of the location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2017
    Assignee: Skyhook Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Russel K. Jones, Christopher Steger, Nicolas Brachet, Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Andrew Broadstone, Joel Morrin
  • Publication number: 20170078842
    Abstract: In one embodiment, techniques approximate concurrent monitoring of a large number of geo-fences, potentially beyond a number supported by a mobile device, The mobile device may obtain a set of geo-fences and maintain a first subset of the geo-fences as an active subset of geo-fences and a second subset of the geo-fences as an inactive subset of geo-fences. The mobile device may also establish and monitor an envelope geo-fences that excluded the inactive subset of geo-fence. In response to detecting that the mobile device has moved to a new location proximate to the envelope geo-fence, one or more geo-fences are moved between the active subset of geo-fences and the inactive subset of geo-fences to produce a new active subset of geo-fences and a new inactive subset of geo-fences.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 3, 2016
    Publication date: March 16, 2017
    Inventors: Christopher Steger, Thomas Jason Dytko, Nicolas Brachet, Russel Kipp Jones, Andrei Dancus, Andrew Broadstone, Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz
  • Patent number: 9565523
    Abstract: In one embodiment, techniques approximate concurrent monitoring of a large number of geo-fences, potentially beyond a number supported by a mobile device, The mobile device may activate a subset of geo-fences to be monitored, the subset of geo-fences selected from the set of geo-fences based on proximity to a current location of the mobile device. The mobile device may also establish and monitor an envelope geo-fence that encompasses the subset of geo-fences. In response to detecting that the mobile device has moved to a new location proximate to the envelope geo-fence, a new subset of geo-fences is activated to be monitored. Geo-fences of the subset of geo-fences that are not part of the new subset of geo-fences are deactivated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2017
    Assignee: Skyhook Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Steger, Thomas Jason Dytko, Nicolas Brachet, Russel Kipp Jones, Andrei Dancus, Andrew Broadstone, Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz
  • Patent number: 9521512
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a system determines a designated wireless device lacks a fixed geographic location, and uses the determination that the designated wireless device lacks a fixed geographic location to improve location estimates. The system determines one or more neighboring wireless devices have relationships with the designated wireless device, wherein a relationship is established when wireless signals from a neighboring wireless device and the designated wireless device are detected by a same receiver. A measure of likelihood is calculated that the designated wireless device lacks a fixed geographic location based at least in part on a number of the relationships or a duration of the relationships. Based on the measure of likelihood, the designated wireless device is excluded from being used in the wireless positioning system as a beacon for estimating the location of a client device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2016
    Assignee: Skyhook Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Nicolas Brachet, Gerald Cavanaugh, Andrei Dancus, Russel K. Jones, Christopher Steger
  • Publication number: 20160321698
    Abstract: In one embodiment, techniques are provided for estimating demographic information. A current device demographic profile for a mobile device is retrieved. An estimated geographic location of the mobile device and a time at which the mobile device visited the estimated geographic location is determined. Based on this, a location demographic profile for a geographic area that includes the estimated geographic location and for a time frame that includes the determined time is retrieved. The current device demographic profile for the mobile device is updated based on the location demographic profile. Further, the location demographic profile is updated based on a plurality of device demographic profiles of a plurality of mobile devices that visit geographic locations within the geographic area, the plurality of mobile devices including the mobile device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2016
    Publication date: November 3, 2016
    Inventors: Andrew J. Broadstone, Russel Kipp Jones, Edward James Morgan, Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Nicolas Brachet
  • Publication number: 20160295547
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a technique is provided for detecting that a wireless beacon is pathological. Data points captured by mobile devices or specialized scanning devices are received at software executing on an electronic device, each data point containing information about beacon attributes. A set of disjoint regions are defined in one or more dimensions and each data point is associated with a corresponding region based on at least one element of the information of the data point lying within the boundaries of the corresponding region. An aggregate attribute is determined for each region based on the information of data points associated with the corresponding region. Then the aggregate attribute of one or more regions is used to determined whether the wireless beacon is pathological, and if determined to be pathological, the wireless beacon is excluded from use by a beacon-based positioning system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 13, 2016
    Publication date: October 6, 2016
    Inventors: Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Nicolas Brachet, Andrei Dancus, Christopher Steger
  • Publication number: 20160269914
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a technique is provided for building a reference database used to estimate a position of a wireless local area network (WLAN) enabled device. Samples are obtained for WLAN access points, the samples for each WLAN access point being based on WLAN signals transmitted by the WLAN access point and received by one or more scanning devices. Software of a WLAN positioning system executing on one or more computing devices estimates a position of each WLAN access point based on the samples of the WLAN access point. The software also estimates a geographical area covered by the samples of each WLAN access point and determines a quality metric of each WLAN access point based on the estimated geographical area covered by the samples of the WLAN access point. The software then builds the reference database based on the estimated position and quality metric of each WLAN access point.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 18, 2016
    Publication date: September 15, 2016
    Inventors: Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Kaveh Pahlavan, Nicolas Brachet
  • Patent number: 9408031
    Abstract: In one embodiment, techniques approximate use of geo-fences of shapes and/or sizes other than those natively support by a mobile device. Upon receiving an initial geo-fence (e.g., a non-supported geo-fence), the mobile device may generate a group of geo-fences (e.g., a group of supported geo-fences) whose union approximates the initial geo-fence, where the group includes one or more geo-fences. The mobile device may treat the group of supported geo-fence as an equivalent to the non-supported geo-fence. When the mobile device crosses one of the supported geo-fences of the group of supported geo-fences, and does not enter into another supported geo-fence of the group of supported geo-fences, a notification may be sent to an application that utilizes the non-supported geo-fence that the non-supported geo-fence has been triggered.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: Skyhook Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Steger, Thomas Jason Dytko, Nicolas Brachet, Russel Kipp Jones, Andrei Dancus, Andrew Broadstone, Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz
  • Patent number: 9408037
    Abstract: In one embodiment, techniques are provided for efficiently selecting and distributing wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) data to a mobile client device. A reference database is maintained on a network server. An expected future location of the mobile client device is determined. The expected future location represents a location different than a present location of the mobile client device, which the mobile client device is expected to visit in the future. One or more tiles are transferred from the reference database to the mobile client device for a bounded geographic region that includes the expected future location. The one or more tiles are stored on the mobile client device to be available for use in satisfying one or more subsequently received requests for estimation of location of the mobile device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: Skyhook Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Nicolas Brachet, Andrei Dancus, Thomas Jason Dytko, Russel Kipp Jones
  • Patent number: 9392407
    Abstract: In one embodiment, when it is determined that one or more Wi-Fi positioning system (WPS) tiles that are necessary to estimate a location of a mobile client device are not present in a WPS tile store on the mobile client device, or are present in the WPS tile store on the mobile client device but out of date, one or more new WPS tiles are requested from a remote server. Each WPS tile is a set of Wi-Fi access point data for Wi-Fi access points within a bounded geographical region. The one or more new WPS tiles are received from the remote server, and are cached in the WPS tile store on the mobile client device. Subsequent to the caching, one or more further locations of the mobile client device are estimated autonomously from the remote server, utilizing Wi-Fi access point data in the WPS tile store.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: Skyhook Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Nicolas Brachet, Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Joel N. Nelson, Russel K. Jones
  • Patent number: 9369845
    Abstract: Method of and systems for assigning estimated positions and attributes to wireless access points in a positioning system are disclosed. A method of estimating a characteristic of a wireless beacon includes receiving a set of data points. Each data point contains information about characteristics of a wireless beacon. The method also includes dividing at least one dimension into a set of regions in which each region of the set has region boundaries that do not overlap with other regions. The method further includes associating each data point with one corresponding region based on at least one element of the information of the data point lying within the boundaries of the corresponding region and determining an aggregate characteristic for each region based on the information of the data points associated with the corresponding region. The method estimates a characteristic of the wireless beacon based on at least one aggregate characteristic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2016
    Assignee: Skyhook Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Nicolas Brachet, Andrei Dancus, Christopher Steger
  • Patent number: 9363785
    Abstract: Methods and systems for classifying WLAN access points according to the quality of estimation of characteristics of the WLAN access points are provided. The classifications may be used to scale a reference database and quantify an expected error of estimation of the characteristics of the access points. WLAN access points may be classified based on their impact on a user's position, speed of travel, and direction of travel estimation accuracy in a WLAN positioning system. A method for determining a quality of estimation of characteristics of a Wi-Fi access point comprises a Wi-Fi enabled scanning device measuring a number of received signal strength (RSS) samples of the Wi-Fi signal transmitted by the Wi-Fi access point. A total distance traveled by the Wi-Fi enabled scanning device while measuring the number of RSS samples is estimated and used to estimate the quality of estimation of characteristics of the Wi-Fi access point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2016
    Assignee: Skyhook Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Kaveh Pahlavan, Nicolas Brachet
  • Patent number: 9298897
    Abstract: Disclosed are techniques for privacy preserving mobile demographic measurement of individuals, groups, and locations over time and space. A method of estimating demographic information associated with a user of a mobile device and/or a location while preserving the privacy of the user based at least in part on a location estimate of the mobile device of the user includes receiving an estimated geographical location of the mobile device of the user and receiving a time at which the mobile device was at the estimated geographical location. The method includes assigning substitute identifiers for the geographical location and the time at which the mobile device was at the estimated geographical location. The method includes associating the geographical areas substitute identifiers with demographic information and estimating demographic information associated with the user of the mobile device based on the substitute identifiers and based on the demographic information associated with substitute identifiers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2016
    Assignee: Skyhook Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew J. Broadstone, Russel Kipp Jones, Edward James Morgan, Farshid Alizadeh-shabdiz, Nicolas Brachet
  • Publication number: 20150241548
    Abstract: In one example embodiment, a Wi-Fi based location determination technique both determines one or more locations of a mobile device, and calculates a confidence score for each determined location. A request is received at a certified location service executing on a server for one or more locations of the mobile device and a data package. The data package may include an indication of a plurality of beacons observed by the mobile device. The certified location service determines one or more locations of the mobile device based on a calculated location of at least some of the plurality of beacons. The certified location service also determines a confidence score for each beacon used in determining each location. An overall confidence score for each determined location may be calculated based on a combination of the confidence scores for each of the beacons used in the determination of the location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 24, 2015
    Publication date: August 27, 2015
    Inventors: Russel K. Jones, Christopher Steger, Nicolas Brachet, Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Andrew Broadstone, Joel Morrin
  • Publication number: 20150181378
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a system determines a designated wireless device lacks a fixed geographic location, and uses the determination that the designated wireless device lacks a fixed geographic location to improve location estimates. The system determines one or more neighboring wireless devices have relationships with the designated wireless device, wherein a relationship is established when wireless signals from a neighboring wireless device and the designated wireless device are detected by a same receiver. A measure of likelihood is calculated that the designated wireless device lacks a fixed geographic location based at least in part on a number of the relationships or a duration of the relationships. Based on the measure of likelihood, the designated wireless device is excluded from being used in the wireless positioning system as a beacon for estimating the location of a client device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 2, 2015
    Publication date: June 25, 2015
    Inventors: Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Nicolas Brachet, Gerald Cavanaugh, Andrei Dancus, Russel K. Jones, Christopher Steger
  • Publication number: 20150172863
    Abstract: In one embodiment, when it is determined that one or more Wi-Fi positioning system (WPS) tiles that are necessary to estimate a location of a mobile client device are not present in a WPS tile store on the mobile client device, or are present in the WPS tile store on the mobile client device but out of date, one or more new WPS tiles are requested from a remote server. Each WPS tile is a set of Wi-Fi access point data for Wi-Fi access points within a bounded geographical region. The one or more new WPS tiles are received from the remote server, and are cached in the WPS tile store on the mobile client device. Subsequent to the caching, one or more further locations of the mobile client device are estimated autonomously from the remote server, utilizing Wi-Fi access point data in the WPS tile store.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 20, 2015
    Publication date: June 18, 2015
    Inventors: Nicolas Brachet, Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Joel N. Nelson, Russel K. Jones
  • Patent number: 9014715
    Abstract: Systems for and methods of determining likelihood of atypical transmission characteristics of reference points in a positioning system are disclosed. A method of determining a measure of likelihood that a designated wireless device exhibits signal transmission characteristics atypical of a wireless device of a type matching the designated device includes determining reference points associated with the designated device, which are a geographic position at which signals from the designated device were detected and/or another wireless device from which signals were also detected by a receiver within a selected period of time during which the signals from the designated device were detected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2015
    Assignee: Skyhook Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Nicolas Brachet, Gerald Cavanaugh, Andrei Dancus, Russel K. Jones, Christopher Steger
  • Patent number: 8996032
    Abstract: Systems for and methods of determining likelihood of reference point identity duplication in a positioning system are disclosed. A method of determining a measure of likelihood that a designated identifier is shared by wireless devices includes determining reference points associated with any wireless device having a designated identifier. The reference points are a geographic position at which signals from any of the wireless devices were detected and/or wireless devices from which signals were also detected within a selected period of time during which the signals from any of the wireless devices having the designated identifier were detected. The method also includes determining statistical information about a temporal distribution of detection of signals of reference points, a spatial distribution of the reference points, and/or a cardinality of the reference points and determining a measure of likelihood that the designated identifier is shared by wireless devices is based on the statistical information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Skyhook Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Nicolas Brachet, Gerald Cavanaugh, Andrei Dancus, Russel K. Jones, Christopher Steger
  • Patent number: 8983504
    Abstract: Systems for and methods of determining likelihood of relocation of reference points in a positioning system are disclosed. A method of determining a measure of likelihood that an estimated geographic location of a designated wireless device is not its accurate present location includes determining a set of reference points associated with the device, which are a geographic position at which signals from the device were detected and/or other devices having a relationship with the designated device. The existence of the relationship is based on the devices being within signal reception range of a same position within a selected period of time. The method includes retrieving attributes of the reference points and/or of the relationships and determining a measure of likelihood that an estimated geographic location associated with the designated device is not its present location based on the attributes of the reference points of the set and/or of the relationships.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: Skyhook Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Nicolas Brachet, Gerald Cavanaugh, Andrei Dancus, Russel K. Jones, Christopher Steger